On Our VIrtual Route 66 This Week: On the Week That Was

 

We present the following on the week that was with thoughts courtesy the information, Futureloop, and Inside Tech:

This 3D-printed cheesecake demonstrates how future kitchens will rely on lasers for cooking Scientists predict software, lasers and printers will soon replace ovens, stoves and microwaves. Cheesecakes were the perfect test. Study authors claim printing precise layers for multi-tiered food could allow users to customize items, control their nutritional content, and improve food safety.

Selected By Virtual Peter 'StarCrete': Future Homes on Mars Could Be Built Using Potato-based Concrete As space agencies are geared towards space exploration beyond the low-Earth orbit, they are eyeing the Moon and Mars as the next destination. Although it might take a decade or two for humans to land and build a colony on the Red Planet, they will need to find some sort of housing.

Selected By Virtual Peter Acer announces the ebii, an ‘AI-driven’ electric bike If you had asked me what computer company would make an electric bike first, Acer would not have been at the top of my list. Acer, the company you probably know as offering affordable laptop and desktop computers, has revealed that it is developing its own electric bike. In a webpage for the upcoming product, the company has provided a full breakdown of the design, specification, and features. As with many electric bikes, Acer is targeting the ebii towards “city dwellers looking to make their commutes easier.”

Metatrends & Moonshots Report by Peter Diamandis

Health Five ways AI promises to transform organ transplants Heather Carlson Kehren Five ways AI promises to transform organ transplants ROCHESTER, Minn. — Artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to become a valuable tool for transplant to save more patients' lives. Recent studies have already shown promise in using AI to analyze large sets of data to discover important trends and patterns. In this expert alert, Mayo Clinic transplant experts share how this technology may improve outcomes for patients. World's first autonomous blood drawing device raises €12M funding After autonomous car, boat, drone, its time for the AI tech to get into the blood business. The Netherland-based Vitestro is a startup which has developed an autonomous blood drawing device and has also announced the completion of a €12 million Series A financing round for the same. California-based VC Sonder Capital led the funding round alongside existing investors and new private investors with experience in the clinical laboratory and medtech industry.

Technology Virtuix's Omni One VR treadmill is finally making its way to customers Gamers looking for a more immersive VR experience in their own home might finally get it with Virtuix's Omni One. Virtuix has been developing the treadmill-like gaming machine for years and, following crowdfunding campaigns, Omni One recently started making its way to backers. Now, Virtuix is kickstarting another round of funding which it has announced will parlay into Omni One being released for sale to the general public later this year. Agility Robotics' next-gen 'Digits' robot has head, hands, LED eyes The new version of the ‘Digits’ robot can “carry more, reach higher, charge faster, last longer and convey intent” better than the earlier model. Additionally, the robot can more effectively manipulate its surroundings, its perception is keener, and it better interacts with humans.

Space NASA is building a flying drone to search a Saturn moon for signs of life Saturn’s giant moon Titan is the mission’s destination. The launch is planned for 2027 and the plan is to study the distant moon’s chemistry after a series of dragon fly-like hops across the surface to gather samples. Managing the program building Dragonfly is NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville. Astronauts that hibernate on long spaceflights is not just for sci-fi. We could test it in 10 years. The first hibernation studies with human subjects could be feasible within a decade, a European Space Agency (ESA) researcher thinks. Such experiments would pave the way for a science-fiction-like approach to long-duration space missions that would see crew members placed into protective slumber for weeks or months on their way to distant destinations.

Transportation Tesla expands its virtual sales presence with remote test drives Tesla is expanding its new sales strategy of using virtual sales advisers with remote test drive locations to Europe. In the summer of 2021, Electrek exclusively reported that Tesla was implementing a new sales strategy. At the time, we reported that the main changes were that the automaker was moving away from high-rent locations in malls and shopping districts in favor of delivery centers and remote test drives. VSR700 Prototype Performs First Autonomous Free Flight Marignane, 28 July 2020 - The prototype of Airbus Helicopters’ VSR700 unmanned aerial system (UAS) has performed its first free flight. The VSR700 performed a ten minute flight at a drone test centre near Aix-en-Provence in the south of France.

‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌   ‌ Good morning! Amazon plans to lay off 9,000 more employees, adding to the 18,000 employees it has already cut. FTX’s management team sued the liquidators overseeing FTX’s Bahamian entity. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said it is open to a potential breakup of Silicon Valley Bank, as it gave bidders deadlines to put in their offers. READ MORE BRIEFINGS Amazon Laying Off 9,000 More Employees, Including in AWS, Ads, Twitch By Theo Wayt | Source: The Information   Amazon plans to lay off 9,000 more employees primarily in Amazon Web Services, advertising, the streaming site Twitch and human resources, CEO Andy Jassy said on Monday. The layoffs will take place in the coming weeks, Jassy said, adding to the 18,000 employees Amazon had already cut starting in November. The latest round of layoffs is all the more notable given that AWS and advertising have been fast growing, high margin parts of Amazon’s business. Cloud computing rivals Google and Microsoft have struggled to compete with AWS, while retail rivals such as Walmart and Target are increasingly looking to replicate Amazon’s success in advertising. Amazon will continue to do limited hiring in “strategic areas” of some businesses, Jassy said. Meanwhile, Twitch CEO Dan Clancy said in a separate blog post that his division is cutting more than 400 jobs, writing that “user and revenue growth has not kept pace with our expectations.” Other Amazon divisions did not immediately announce layoff figures. This story has been updated to include comments from Twitch CEO Dan Clancy. FTX Sues Liquidators of Bahamas Unit By Akash Pasricha | Source: The Information   The FTX bankruptcy continues to be a messy affair for everyone involved. On Sunday, FTX’s management team sued the liquidators overseeing FTX’s Bahamian entity, saying the liquidators wrongly claimed ownership of FTX assets. FTX management is seeking a court ruling making clear that the Bahamian entity owns no part of FTX’s assets, its customer information, and that FTX can recover anything that the Bahamian entity may have fraudulently taken possession of. Creditor claims total $6.8 billion more than the $4.8 billion FTX has in assets, according to court filings. Meanwhile, efforts to recoup money for creditors are hitting delays. An auction for LedgerX, FTX’s U.S. derivatives exchange, has been delayed to April 4, according to court filings over the weekend. That marks the third time the auction had been pushed back. Related Articles • This FTX Unit May Help Customers Recover Some of Their Losses FDIC Sets Deadline for SVB Bids By Michael Roddan | Source: The Information   The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said it is open to a potential breakup of Silicon Valley Bank, as it gave bidders deadlines to put in their offers. The regulator didn’t secure a buyer for SVB over the weekend, but it did ink a deal with Flagstar Bank owner New York Community Bank to buy the majority of failed New York-based Signature Bank. The FDIC clarified for the first time that only qualified, insured banks would be able to submit bids for SVB, and non-bank entities (such as private equity firms interested in SVB’s assets) will require the backing of a qualified, insured banking partner to be considered a potential buyer for the lender. However, non-bank groups can bid on SVB’s asset portfolios. While the FDIC said it had received “substantial interest from multiple parties” on SVB, it would allow separate bids for Silicon Valley Bridge Bank, and its subsidiary Silicon Valley Private Bank, with a deadline of Wednesday for the subsidiary arm and Friday for the larger bank. In order to sell the crypto-specialist Signature Bank, which was seized by the FDIC earlier this month following the collapse of SVB, the regulator carved out from the deal around $4 billion in digital asset-related deposits held by Signature. The bank had roughly $18 billion of those types of deposits at the end of the December quarter. New Report to Australian Government Alleges ByteDance Poses Disinformation Threat By Shai Oster | Source: The Information   A new report by a former Australian government official alleges that TikTok’s owner ByteDance “can no longer be accurately described as a private enterprise.” The report submitted to the Australian federal parliament’s Select Committee on Foreign Interference through Social Media said TikTok shows users more pro-China content than other apps. The report was co-authored by ex-government official John Garnaut, a former journalist, and relied heavily on Chinese-language open source documents. The submission, which was first written about by Australian media, said “TikTok provides Beijing with the latent capability to weaponize the platform by suppressing, amplifying and otherwise calibrating narratives in ways that microtarget political constituencies abroad.” “In our view, ByteDance has demonstrated sufficient capability, intent, and precedent in promoting Party propaganda through its Chinese platforms to create material risk that they would do the same through TikTok,” the report says. TikTok has broadly denied such allegations but the report comes at a sensitive time just ahead of TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew’s testimony before Congress this week. Flagstar Acquires Most of Signature Bank, Excluding Crypto Business By Aidan Ryan | Source: The Information   Flagstar Bank agreed to a deal with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation to purchase most of Signature Bank, though the deal does not include roughly $4 billion of deposits related to the bank’s crypto business, the FDIC announced Sunday. Signature was taken over by New York state regulators last week and was placed into a receivership with the FDIC. The bank had a significant crypto business, with clients that included Coinbase and Gemini, and ran an around-the-clock, blockchain payments network called Signet. That network was similar to a network at Silvergate, another crypto-friendly bank that collapsed this month. The bid by Flagstar, a unit of New York Community Bancorp, did not include around $4 billion in deposits from crypto clients. Those deposits will be returned to customers directly by the FDIC.  The deal also does not include Signet, an FDIC spokesperson confirmed. POPULAR ARTICLES How JPMorgan Maneuvered During the Fall of Silicon Valley Bank Boom Times in San Francisco’s AI Underground The Instant Oral History of the Silicon Valley Bank Collapse Where the Venture Community Goes From Here

ChatGPT developer OpenAI gave its chatbot access to some third-party knowledge sources on Wednesday. The new plugins will allow the AI-powered language model to browse the internet in certain cases. More: Prior to its first-party web-browsing plugin, ChatGPT's knowledge base was limited to information dated to September 2021 or before. Only a limited number of developers and subscribers to the ChatGPT Plus plan will initially be given access to the new capabilities. OpenAI said it will roll out wider access to the capabilities along with API access sometime in the future. One of OpenAI's earlier projects, WebGPT, quoted unreliable sources from the internet and cherry-picked data that it expected its users to find convincing. Meta's web-enabled BlenderBot 3.0 gave its users answers from sources of offensive content and conspiracy theories. OpenAI noted that giving ChatGPT web-enabled functionality introduces new risks but insists that it has “implemented several safeguards.”

Apple is reportedly adopting new measures to enforce its return to office policy. The tech giant has begun scrutinizing employee badge records to track in-person attendance at its office locations. More: Many companies required employees to work at home at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Apple last summer began asking workers to return to the office for at least some days during the week. Some employees opposed the return-to-office mandates, saying that they would rather work remotely. 9to5Mac first reported a tweet from Platformer's Zoe Schiffer, who said that Apple had begun using badge records to track how often employees entered their offices. The company is reportedly issuing "escalating warnings" to employees who fail to meet its in-office work requirements. Apple has not adopted a policy of firing workers who do not comply with its return-to-work rules, but some employees fear this could start taking place unofficially.

Amazon is preparing to shut down leading camera review site DPReview. The site is the latest casualty of the unprecedented spate of layoffs being carried out by the company as it responds to slowing sales growth and an uncertain macroeconomic environment. More: Founded in 1998, DPReview was acquired by Amazon in 2007. Its staff was relocated from England to Seattle. Amazon made little effort to integrate DPReview with its other properties and the site continued to operate with little evidence that it had been acquired. DPReview is known for providing extremely detailed reviews of digital cameras and camera accessories. The website's staff will continue posting content until April 10, at which point the site will be "locked" in a read-only mode. It is not yet known if Amazon will keep the site online in a read-only form or remove it from the internet entirely.

Local authorities have authorized Apple supplier Foxconn to start building its new factory in Bengaluru, India. The final plan describes a project that is more expensive and offers fewer jobs than originally predicted. More: Foxconn announced earlier this month that it plans to build a new iPhone assembly facility in Bengaluru, the capital of the Indian state of Karnataka. The facility was projected to cost $700M and provide 100,000 new jobs. Official documents seen by the Times of India describe a facility that is projected to cost $968M and provide about 50,000 new jobs. Foxconn still plans to construct the plant near Bengaluru's Kempegowda International Airport. Apple has been pressuring its suppliers to move their operations out of China amid rising tensions between Washington and Beijing. Apple and Foxconn recently lobbied for Karnataka to change its labor laws to allow for double-shift production processes. Zoom Out: Kazuyoshi Yoshinaga, deputy chairman of AirPod maker GoerTek Inc., told Bloomberg that 90% of Apple's top Chinese suppliers may be preparing large-scale moves to India and other countries amid rising tensions between Beijing and Washington.

Amazon's hiring processes during the COVID-19 pandemic lacked oversight, a leaked document shows. The new information provides additional context for Amazon's unprecedented round of job cuts which saw 2,300 employees laid off in January. More: Amazon's lack of hiring oversight resulted in "inconsistency, error, and potential misuse," including "over-hiring," according to the leaked document published by Insider. Amazon's web services team listed three times more open positions than the company had approved over the period assessed by the internal document. 24,988 open positions were posted in 2022, even though Amazon only gave official approval for 7,798 positions. Many of the problems stemmed from leaving hiring decisions up to individual managers, according to the document. Zoom Out: The tech industry has announced major layoffs in recent months, which has largely been attributed to overhiring during the pandemic.

QUICK HITS Take your Google Cloud knowledge to the next level with The GCP Cookbook! Discover self-contained recipes for seamless cloud computing.* The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said it plans to sue Coinbase. The warning marks the latest phase in a long-running dispute between the SEC and the digital-asset firm over its listed tokens.  Klarna and OpenAI are working on a plugin that will leverage ChatGPT to enhance online shopping experiences. The plugin will allow ChatGPT to provide users of Klarna's e-commerce platform with shopping advice and product recommendations. The U.S. and South Korea are both seeking the extradition of Do Kwon, co-founder of failed blockchain firm Terraform Labs. Kwon was arrested in Montenegro while he was attempting to travel to Dubai. Utah Gov. Spencer Cox signed two pieces of legislation on Thursday targeting social media platforms. The measures require minors in the state to receive parental consent before using services like Facebook and prohibit companies from using features and designs that may cause "addiction".

UPCOMING EVENTS March 27 - Inside Interview with Zscaler - Zero Trust Defense Strategies to Take Your Security to the Next Level (Watch On Demand) March 28 - Inside Startups Coffee Break (Register Here) March 30 - A panel on how CTOs balance and prioritize NFRs into their roadmaps (Register Here) * March 30 - Inside.com Book Club - The Creative Act by Rick Rubin (Register Here) April 06 - Inside Interview with Lacework - The Evolution of Cloud Security w/ Ulfar Erlingsson (Watch On Demand) April 18 - Human Resources Summit'23 (Register Here) We close out with the following: